In recent years, a number of new telephone service features have been provided by an Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN). The AIN evolved out of a need to increase the capabilities of the telephone network architecture in order to meet the growing needs of telephone customers or users. Additionally, as the number of people who rely on the Internet for communication increases, so does the demand for the electronic transfer of data.
Referring now to FIG. 1, it is seen that an AIN-based network arrangement is provided within and/or in conjunction with a telephone system LATA (Local Access and Transport Area) 101 that defines a calling service area. The LATA 101 includes stations (i.e. telephone lines and telephone equipment at the ends thereof) 103 and corresponding service switching points (SSPs) 105 (i.e., end offices or central offices). The SSPs 105 are each programmable switches which: recognize AIN-type calls; launch queries to service control points (SCPs) 107 (only one being shown in FIG. 1); and receive commands and data from SCPs 107 to further process and route AIN-type calls. A signal transfer point (STP) 109 may be employed to route signals between the SSPs 105, the SCPs 107, and other network elements. When one of the SSPs 105 is triggered by an AIN-type call, the triggered SSP 105 formulates an AIN service request and responds to call processing instructions from the network element in which the AIN service logic resides, typically at an SCP 107.
In a telephone system such as those in LATA 101, and absent other considerations, each SSP 105 routes a call from a station 103 coupled thereto and at a first location to a second location according to a generally static routing table that is included with or locally available to such SSP 105 (not shown). As may be appreciated, the second location may be any location, including a location within the LATA 101, external to the LATA 101 but relatively local, or external to the LATA 101 and not relatively local, e.g.
However, and importantly, the information in a static routing table can quickly become old or ‘stale’. That is, such information is typically selected to optimize one or more parameters and is based on the telephone or data network within which calls/data are to be routed, and yet such telephone or data network can be expected to change on a minute by minute or even second by second basis. For example, a particular routing may go down at any time, or the operator of such routing may increase a usage cost rate at any time. In contrast with such a dynamic environment, the static routing table typically, is updated once every 24 hours or so. Therefore, the information that the routing table contains and uses to route calls/data quickly becomes obsolete. As is to be appreciated, usage of such obsolete information quickly becomes inefficient and costly.
Accordingly, a need exists for a cost effective method of routing calls/data between a first location and a second location using current real time information. In particular, a need exists for a method of routing calls/data that generates maximum revenue or that incurs the least cost to the routing entity.